Rick Mc

September 2, 2010September 1, 2010

hiking Naturalist Basin, Utah

trip report by site editor Rick McCharles

… Naturalist Basin is a multi-tiered wonderland of lakes and alpine scenery. Nestled between two 12,000+ foot peaks (Agassiz 12,428′ and Spread Eagle 12,540′), in the western end of the main 100 mile Uinta spine, Naturalist Basin is one of the quicker routes to get into the wilderness experience of the Uinta Mountain Range. …

The High Uintas Wilderness near Salt Lake City is convenient for backcountry camping. And horse camping.

Perhaps too convenient:

… extremely popular, over-fishing, destructive camping and too many campfires have taken their toll on some of the purity in the area, but it remains an incredible treasure just the same. The Forest Service has now permanently banned campfires in Naturalist Basin, and has shut down many campsites, especially around the first meadow in Naturalist Basin. …

Utah Pictures

Of the 545 miles of trail, I decided on the Highline Trail trailhead near Butterfly Lake.

The approach was somewhat dull, actually, tree-locked. The creeks were the highlight.

Here’s why we like it. High alpine meadows.

There are a number of pretty lakes, high up. My map wasn’t detailed enough to name them.

That one might be Blue Lake.

End of August, the summer was clearly dying.

This was as high as I could get without scrambling to one of the summits.

more photos from this day hike

September 1, 2010

Sugarloaf Path, East Coast Trail NFLD

Candice Walsh posted a nice write-up on Go Nomad:

… The trail starts out with overhead views of Quidi Vidi Village and the surrounding cliffs. If you wander close enough to the edge, you can practically dangle your feet down onto tiny, brightly painted fishing sheds huddle against the rock face. The first leg is difficult and almost entirely uphill: steep hills to climb, stairways rising straight upwards, and often high winds to prevent you from moving forward quickly.

But the view at the top? Completely worth it. …

Check it out – Rediscovering Newfoundland and the East Coast Trail

official home page – East Coast Trail

related post – my July 2010 day hike trip report

September 1, 2010August 29, 2010

review – National Geographic Trails Software

She likes.

In the Sierra Nevada the Hiking Lady compared USGS topo with Tom Harrison maps and the new National Geographic Trails Software.

… On the trail, I found I much preferred the National Geographic and Tom Harrison maps to the USGS maps. They are well labeled and trail distances are clearly marked. The National Geographic map definitely proved to the best.

Here’s why. After we set up camp near Garnet Lake, the next day we decided to take a look around and head to Thousand Island Lake. Using just the USGS and Tom Harrison maps, we plotted a route up to the saddle to take a look at Thousand Island Lake. However, as you can see in the maps below, the National Geographic map has the additional detail that shows that there is a trail from Garnet Lake to Thousand Island Lake! …

USGS – Garnet Lake Topo

Tom Harrison Map – nice shaded relief, but no trail!

National Geographic Map – the only one that includes the trail!

Additionally, the shading on the map gave me a good perspective on elevation, so I didn’t need to spend so much time counting contour lines!

I am quite impressed with the software program. The cost is $49.95 for the entire Sierra Nevada range (10 map regions), so it is definitely more cost effective than buying each map individually.

Bottom line: The National Geographic Trails Software impressed me, and I will be purchasing it for other region where I hike.

read the review

August 31, 2010August 31, 2010

Rocky Mountain lows …

My hiking buddy, Stanley, dragged his non-hiking wife along this year to wonderous Lake O’Hara in the Canadian Rockies.

In her weekly column, Kate bemoans the prospect:

… for many years, Stanley and a bunch of his old buddies met once every summer in the Rockies for long, full days of tromping uphill in flannel shirts, with gigantic backpacks pulling them in the opposite direction. The highlights, such as they were, seemed to consist of glacier-side “boil-ups” of Sapporo Ichiban and beef jerky washed down with Tang around noon.

Night-time in the mountains apparently fell about 6 p.m., at which point they’d mix some Crystal Lite with rotgut vodka, sit around a campfire, and break wind while tallying up the day’s marmot sightings. …

Funny. Read the rest on Kate of Late – Nobody sings about the Rocky Mountain lows
… How did the trip go?

Kate looks … happy.

August 31, 2010August 29, 2010

seen the visor buff … ??

Hate hats?

But need to shade your eyes …

What about a Bandana with a visor?

Perfect solution.

Watch a video.

I carry a regular buff but rarely seem to use it. For one thing, it’s shoddy in that only one side is “finished”. … This I might actually use.

(via v-g Backpacking in Britain)

August 30, 2010August 29, 2010

decided – I’ll thru hike Continental Divide Trail, Colorado

by site editor Rick McCharles

I’ve done enough investigation this summer.

My first thru hike will be this:

… The CDT passes through many of the highest and wildest mountain regions of Colorado, such as the San Juan Mountains and the Sawatch Range. …

It is concurrent with the Colorado Trail for approximately 200 miles. The Continental Divide itself in Colorado meanders some 650 miles. There are many stretches of the Continental Divide in Colorado that have no distinct marked or named trail. …

Continental Divide Trail, Colorado

All I need now is TIME one summer. And a solar powered, satellite blogging device.

Advice?

Leave a comment.

August 29, 2010

have you seen WHITE deer?

Not albino.

SenecaWhiteDeer.org is a site dedicated to preserving a unique herd of white deer in Seneca County, New York State.

more photos

(via New York Outdoors Blog and Hiking in the Smokys)

August 28, 2010August 28, 2010

NEW New Zealand hiking site

New Zealand Track Profiles (NZTP)

nzTrackProfiles.com

Outdoor route planning made easy

New Zealand Track Profiles (NZTP) provides a comprehensive solution to route planning for the New Zealand outdoors:
Elevation profiles for ALL walking tracks in New Zealand

High resolution 3D topography covering the WHOLE of New Zealand with all the essential details and features normally found only in printed maps. Each map sheet has equivalent area coverage as the corresponding commercial paper map.

Comprehensive track statistics which describe the characteristics of each track and its level of difficulty.

Navigation aids in the form of GPS and Google Earth files, for each track in the map sheet.

Each map sheet is available as a set of two ZIP files which can be downloaded independently.

Some of the 12,000 tracks are free. The rest cost a maximum of $2. … Cheap.

I’m thinking of returning to New Zealand for hiking next year. It’s our #1 hiking destination in the world.

August 26, 2010August 27, 2010

Gary Robbins – records WCT, ECT

The East Coast Trail stretches for 340 miles along the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, while the West Coast Trail runs for 47 miles along Vancouver’s southwestern shoreline. …

Recently, endurance athlete Gary Robbins set the daunting goal for himself to attain speed records on both of these trails, starting in Vancouver and the WCT on August 4th.

Running North to South, Gary completed the entire 47 miles in just 10 hours and 8 minutes, which does indeed establish a new record for that route. Of course, that was just a warm-up for the much longer, and more challenging ECT, which he began on August 20th and completed on the 22nd, finishing the entire route in a blistering 35 hours and 17 minutes. …

The Adventure Blog – Endurance Athlete Sets Speed Records on Canada’s East and West Coast Trails

August 23, 2010August 20, 2010

hiking Maroon Bells Loop, Colorado

trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles

• 28mi (45.1km)
• moderate difficulty
• free backcountry permit
• 4 passes all higher than 12,000ft

For years I’ve wanted to get to this, one of the most photographed idyls in the Rockies.

The Maroon Bells is a mountain in the Elk Mountains that consists of two peaks, South Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak, separated by about a third of a mile.

… about 12 miles southwest of Aspen. Both peaks are counted as fourteeners …

The Maroon Bells 4 Pass Loop starts here, high at 9580ft (2920m), mostly above the treeline.

The wildflowers were still quite good mid-August.

As usual in late afternoon in the Rockies, weather was iffy.

It was an emergency tent site I finally found just at dark. Happily, next morning dawned brilliantly clear:

Early morning I crossed pass #1: West Maroon.

En route to Pass #2: Frigid Air:

The trails are fantastic, … aside from one much cursed section I called THE QUAGMIRE. Once you reach the biggest waterfall on the Crystal river, the track disappears into a bog of mud and fallen trees.

Who’s responsible?

Here I am cleaning my shoes (deliberately) on a creek crossing.

When I met an oncoming hiker who had heard about THE QUAGMIRE, he decided to bushwhack on the opposite side of Crystal river. It couldn’t possibly be worse.

See the next high pass?